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This is a long post, but I feel if you’re considering to use The Hartwell Group or Larry Racies in Deland, Florida for any kind of home remodeling, the five minutes spent in reading this might provide some valuable information as I had an unfortunate experience with this guy. Like the previous poster described, I also found out too late before the real Larry Racies showed his true identity. I hired his company, The Hartwell Group, a group of one mind you, to perform some residential remodeling as well and was nothing short of a complete disaster!
Don't be fooled by this guy. Larry Racies comes off as a genuine person, a man of god, and having a family of six kids looking to make an honest living. His emails often include at the bottom a picture of his family, portraying a loving and hardworking family. It’s hard not to trust him or feel sorry for him after he comes to your house to give you a 2 hour dissertation of his work in a shirt and tie. He often tries to establish a personal relationship with you by asking questions such as “So, how was your day today?” or “How was your weekend?” so you feel comfortable in awarding him the contract. You agree in writing to start the job and it slowly starts to derail about a week into the project as you start to notice work being done incorrectly or out of order. Once the conflicts start happening - which always does in the construction industry - or if something doesn't go his way, or he feels like he's not in control of the situation; he's the first one to scrutinize the job to find a loophole to cry breach of contract while pointing to you. Once this happens, he takes the liberty in abandoning the project, failing to refund the money you allocated for materials at the start of the job, and never hearing back from him again. He has done this for years to people, hoping they’ll just write it off as a bad experience, and not pursue litigation.
I urge you, be careful and do your research before you hire a 'licensed' contractor. Check the online government records with Volusia County, Orange County, and other Central Florida municipalities before you sign a contract with him or anyone. After finding out too late, The Hartwell Group cost me more time and money than what was allocated in my budget.
I suggest sticking with a Home Depot or Lowes subcontractor. Granted if might be more expensive, but they're reputable companies with integrity and the customer typically has more leverage than if using a guy who makes a living doing odd jobs. Furthermore, if there are any issues along the way which you can't work out with the installer, it's much easier to remedy the situation with a District Manager than it is with a judge.
I agree with Angry Home Owner, in fact I have met with him and we compared notes.
Lawrence Hartwell Racies and The Hartwell Group in Deltona, Florida has been convicted of unlicensed contracting by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. The Volusia County Contractor Licensing and Construction Appeals Board has also found him guilty of similar charges. Both agencies have fined him.
The problem is that he really doesn't know what he's doing and he tries to cover it up by telling his victims that he is licensed. He gets in way over his head, screws up the job and takes off with the money. Case after case in the Volusia County civil courts show this history. We are not making this up - every bit of what you read here is public record.
The latest is that this idiot, Larry Racies is trying to take his contractor exam and keeps failing the test. We have obtained his test scores and found that he failed the Project Management section in Orlando on February 20th. He also tried and failed the contract administration portion in Orlando the same day (go figure). He failed another portion in December.
The sad part about this is that he's too stupid to pass the exam and he knows even less about actually building stuff. We (and at least a dozen others) would recommend steering clear of Lawrence Hartwell Racies, The Hartwell Group, Central Florida Deck Carpentry.
If you need more details, please feel free to email myself or Angry Home Owner.
My husband and I agree with the complaints filed on this board against Lawrence Hartwell Racies (aka "Larry Racies") and his company, The Hartwell Group.
He contracted with us to build a deck around our pool and after suffering through many quality issues, he ended up placing a lien against our home and attempting to sue US!
We have numerous emails from him threatening to confiscate our motorcycles and sell our house on the courthouse steps. The lien was thrown out and the suit he filed against us resulted in a judgment against him.
Rather than working hard to earn a living, he seems to view the legal system as somplace where he can hit the lottery by deceiving unsuspecting homeowners then suing them when they discover that he really cannot deliver the work he promised.
I have been called as a witness in a case against him as have others whom I suspect have posted on this site.
Please do your research before hiring this man or his company.
The Hartwell Group contracted to do some work for my elderly mother. He took a large deposit from her and she never saw him again.
Larry Racies took advantage of my mother who is now incapacitated and he knew that she was not fully capable of making decisions of this sort.
The authorities ordered him to repay the money and he agreed but she never saw a penny of it. Our family would not do business with Larry again.
Thank you
Amen. Keep this guy away from your property.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
he claims to be a conservative christian, yet today FEB 22 2018, this BAFOON texted me TODAY and called me a n[censor]
Additional response: Nelson Goodreau the author and/or instigator of these false complaints has stated here-in that I have been convicted of Operating as a contractor without a contractor's license. Although Mr. Goodreau's attempt to have this accomplished he was not successful because the charge was and is patiently false. Lawrence Racies, THG, Inc.
The supposed response from complaintsboard.com sends my email to AngryHomeowner which tells me the comments from them never happened. AH has MADE IT UP. Since The Hartwell Group, Inc. and Lawrence H. Racies have tried every reasonable method to reconcile any issues with their clients, it just doesn't make sense that the complaintsboard would make such a statement. Had they really investigated, they would know that THG, Inc. and Mr. Racies are within compliance and have nothing to hide. Their business practices are above board. Please call them to verify at [protected].
I am so glad all of these posts were made public. Because of them, I was able to check out The Hartwell Group, Inc. and Lawrence H. Racies. It's very important, you know, that you check everything you read so that you are not snowed by lies. I did my homework and this is what I found: for every complaint, I was able to easily find more VERY satisfied clients! How can this be? Some of the folks listed above didn't even submit the complaints, nor were the facts accurate, nor were they even aware of these posts. BEWARE of the complaints listed, check your facts and, yes, even contact the The Hartwell Group, Inc. They will happily provide you with a list of qualified references, as any professional company should do. They are quite aware of these complaints and would love the opportunity to discuss them with you objectively, as they did with me. No smoking gun here.
I filed a complaint against this business with the Central Florida BBB over two years ago. They just recently updated their online files to reflect the magnitude of the misdeeds perpetrated by this man under the guise of acting as a "licensed contractor", which he's not.
Check out their website at http://centralflorida.bbb.org/search.asp and do a search of "Hartwell Group".
I feel for all of you who have been scammed by the person! He goes by Larry Racies, Lawrence Racies as well as ZCI-Zee's Construction, Inc. http://www.zeesdesigns.com/index.html http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/ZCI.Central.Florida.Design.Build.General.Contractors.800-738-0387 But can I ask why nobody has reported him to the Better Business Bureau http://centralflorida.bbb.org/
If you are not someone with the name Frutchey, which I doubt you are because I just got off the phone with our only client with that name, I suggest you take down the false post to save yourself from civil action.
Lawrence Racies
OMG! I just logged on to this site after posting something several months ago regarding Lawrence Hartwell Racies of The Hartwell Group and some remodelling work he did for us.
I am amazed at some of his respones to these complaints but I assure you that I am not a made up person and am not making this up.
There is a video I posted on YouTube showing the destruction he caused at my house - you can view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhdHuFIJYJA - you might need to cut and paste the link into your browser. But trust me when I tell you that his incompetence is REAL.
We sued him for the max that we could in small claims court, which wasn't enough and ended up settling by him paying us $2300 over a period of months.
I know he has had numerous problems with people in this area and have talked to a few of his victims. He can quote the bible and claim God is on his side but my advice remains the same as in my original post: make sure you check him out with the authorities before hiring him...
These post are false and can be proven to be false.
Yes we did business with a few clients over the years out of hundreds that had conflicts but the facts are not found here.
We don't go around suing people for no reason. The second to the last poster was sued for alleging there was no contract when he found our copy missing. They are liars. They lied in open court.
The last poster occused us of this deed and the DPR found his /her attack to by unreliable.
This man's mother was a liar who attempted to skirt the municipal authoity by having work done without the proper permit. To have this fact hidden she attacked me and is obviously still attacking me through her devoted yet misguided son. She was eventually forced to have the structure demolished at no fault of ours but only her own. She also broke her contract yet we gave her a partial refund to resolve the matter. Obviously we were the only ones in good faith in the matter.
lawrence Racies [protected]
When a client breaks a contract, we attempt to have it resolve amicably and then in some cases, we sue them.
That is what has occured with these people or similar events.
We have a long list of satisfied clients here in central Florida. Contact for a copy of these references if you are interested at [protected].
We will not run from nor enter into unscrululas attacks against our enemies as they do.
Romans 8;31
********NOTICE REGARDING VALIDITY OF COMPLAINTS********
UPON INVESTIGATING THE VALIDITY OF THE COMPLAINTS, WE HAVE VERIFIED EACH OF THE COMPLAINTS POSTED ON THIS SITE, WWW.COMPLAINTSBOARD.COM TO BE TRUE AND ACCURATE.
LAWRENCE HARTWELL RACIES AND THE HARTWELL GROUP HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED THAT UPON SATISFACTORILY RESOLVING ANY PENDING CUSTOMER ISSUES RELATED TO THESE POSTINGS, COMPLAINTS BOARD WILL REMOVE ALL PERTINENT POSTINGS.
Bull
Angry Home owner is a liar. Kim Thrasher is an alias for the same person. Complaints board posts anything sent in.
The Hartwell Group is involved in a lengthy nasty civil dispute and has had business relations with this guy.
He hides behind aliases and lies to police, Judges, Department of Professional Regulation and Building Departments.
If you would like a copy of our lengthy list of references here in central Florida to compare to a few ignoramouses over the many years we've been in business, you may call or write to The Hartwell Group, Inc. [protected], hartwell0282@earthlink.net
Why has my rebuttle been removed?